When Einstein was asked to explain his theory of relativity in simple terms he said: “An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.”
I love this quote, because it applies to just about every walk of life. We tend to think our perspective is the truth. But what it actually is, is just our perspective.
I remember my older siblings talking about one of their teachers. They meant the same guy but they all had a different way of describing this person. I was fascinated by that observation. Every one of them had some different experiences with the same man. So they all had different feelings and a different interpretation of who this person was.
I was only at primary school so I did not know this teacher at all. I had never seen him and had no image of his looks. But I was curious to see this man in real life – because I already had quite an idea of who I would see from the conversations at the dining table.
This whole concept gets real interesting when people’s perspectives clash. We do have this certain image and the other person does have another one.
People can get into fighting and arguing, they can get so emotional about a different mental image of a situation that they are willing to get into troubles or even kill.
The best example that already puzzled me as a child was the idea of “my god is better than yours”. And when it gets to Christianity, Judaism and Muslim faith – they even mean the same god. They all three are Abrahamic religions, praying to the same god. But having their own take on this god they go into fighting and even killing each other to force their opinion on others.
This example is so obvious that it hurts.
It hurts to see how absurd human behaviour can get.
It feels like we are misusing what makes us so unique, our strong mental capacity.
This societal example is easy to grasp. But our own little world is full of situations where we engage in such folly towards the people surrounding us ourselves.
When I think of it, my guess would be that the next step in evolution would be to learn to see through the other person’s eyes.
And to recognize that what we do see is just a little piece of things.
We don’t have the truth, we just have a perspective.
And that holds true for us and for everybody else.
I figure the truth is like a huge puzzle. Nobody can see the whole thing – until we all add our little piece, our perspective.
The magic happens when we combine and celebrate, not fight our differences.
Have a beautiful early spring,
with so much love,
Anselma
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